viii, 384 pages : 25 cm

"The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving story of faith. In this pathbreaking account, Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese-American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation's history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. Nearly all Americans of Japanese descent were subject to bigotry and accusations of disloyalty, but Buddhists aroused particular suspicion. Government officials, from the White House to small-town mayors, believed that Buddhism was incompatible with American values. Intelligence agencies targeted the Buddhist community for surveillance, and Buddhist priests were deemed a threat to national security. On December 7, 1941, as the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Attorney General Francis Biddle issued a warrant to "take into custody all Japanese" classified as potential national security threats. The first person detained was Bishop Gikyo Kuchiba, leader of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist sect in Hawai`i. In the face of discrimination, dislocation, dispossession, and confinement, Japanese Americans turned to their faith to sustain them, whether they were behind barbed wire in camps or serving in one of the most decorated combat units in the European theater. Using newly translated sources and extensive interviews with survivors of the camps and veterans of the war, American Sutra reveals how the Japanese American community broadened our country's conception of religious freedom and forged a new American Buddhism."--Dust jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-371) and index

Prologue: Thus have I heard: an American sutra -- 1. America: a nation of religious freedom?. December 7, 1941 ; American Buddhism: migrations to freedom ; Buddhism as a national security threat ; Surveilling Buddhism ; Compiling registries -- 2. Martial law in the land of aloha. Buddhist life under martial law ; Camps in the land of aloha -- 3. Japanese America under siege. War hysteria ; Tightening the noose ; Executive Order 9066 ; The forced "relocation" -- 4. Camp Dharma. The Dharma in the high-security camps ; Lotus blossoms above muddy water -- 5. Sangha behind barbed wire. Horse stable Buddhism ; "Barrack churches" in camp -- 6. Reinventing American Buddhism. Adapting Buddhism ; Sect and trans-sect ; Interfaith cooperation ; Rooting the Sangha -- 7. Onward Buddhist soldiers. Richard Sakakida, American spy ; The military intelligence service (mis) ; Draftees and volunteers ; The 100th Battalion ; The 442nd Regimental Combat Team -- 8. Loyalty and the draft. The loyalty questionnaire ; Tule Lake Segregation Center ; Leave clearance and the draft -- 9. Combat in Europe. Dog tags ; Chaplains ; Fallen soldiers -- 10. The resettlement. Return to a hostile West Coast ; Temples as homes ; Resettling in Hawai'i and Japan ; Buddhism in America's heartland -- Epilogue: The stones speak: an American sutra

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